Life is full of surprises for a 71-year-old formerly illiterate woman who signed up for a Chinese course at the Stella Matutina Evergreen College in 2005 and has become a painter and an author.
Wang Su-ying (王素英) had to drop out of elementary school after her second year because her family could no longer afford to send her. Like many people, she only had time to continue her education when her children had grown up and she was free from financial worries.
For Wang, learning to read and write also allowed her to learn how to drive. She passed her driving test at age 65, which then allowed her to drive to college four days a week.
Photo: Su Meng-chuan, Taipei Times
In addition to the Chinese course, she studied sketching with art teacher Hu Chih-chiang, who has now helped Wang publish a picture book titled Live Out the Color of Life — Grandma’s Color Mixing Plate.
During art class, when Wang finished a piece, she would share the story behind her creation and Hu would write the story down. They became close friends and Hu, who said she was deeply moved by Wang’s lively spirit and life view, came up with the idea three years ago of compiling the paintings and stories into a book.
The book was released on Wednesday and at the book launch, Wang displayed one of her crayon sketches, which she said she had copied from an old photograph taken 40 years ago.
The sketch, which shows herself and another woman rowing a boat, was a reflection of her youth, Wang said, adding that she was 28-years-old at the time, and the park outing was a wonderful memory. The other woman wore a purple sweater, a color that stands for eternal friendship, Wang said.
Wang’s 35-year-old daughter Chu Chia-feng (屈佳峰) said her mother was a very talented artist and a highly motivated student.
“My mother told the art teacher that she wanted to paint because she wanted to remember every moment of her life through paintings,” Chu said.
“She always told me not to give up on anything,” Chu said. “Life-long learning is the greatest inspiration I have found from her.”
The book contains 42 paintings and was translated into Japanese and English so it could inspire and encourage other elderly people at the college who are studying languages, a course coordinator surnamed Yang (楊) said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS